It made me realize that I have seen no references to generally-accepted best-practice documents regarding code modification, deletion, or rewrites. I would imagine/.'s have come across them if they exist. The answers may be somewhat language-dependent, but what best practices do/.'s use when they modify production code?

I believe in two unwritten rules of deleting code:1 - Beware of the ego of whoever wrote that code, specially if he or she is your Boss2 - Most people in this world don't quite accept the KISS principle, deleting code might go against that majority that believes a simple thing is a bad thingThose rules are specially important when you're replacing a whole module of the old codeThere are many exceptions of course.